Precision driving: Make a resolution to drive with pride
The arrival of the New Year prompts many of us to make life-improving resolutions. Sometimes, we even honor our good intentions by practicing these resolutions throughout the years ahead. For 2007 and beyond, I wish we would all resolve to drive with pride.
Last month, J.S. told me about his driver training days. He reminisced of his stint in a trainer vehicle — a time when he placed the utmost concentration on each driving task. Within that learning period, it was a source of great pride to park perfectly, turn skillfully, and master flawless stops. That’s part of being a precision driver, J.S. — way to go on that exemplary beginning. I hope you are keeping it up today. I’ll bet you are, since you told me that you often test yourself by using your brakes in a skillful way, so as to not feel the final stop. I thought I was the only one who did that.
That conversation renewed thoughts of my own driver training. At the risk of exposing my age, our trainer car was a 1966 Impala. It had a 283 V-8, a two-speed Powerglide transmission, and two brake pedals (one on the passenger side).
Like J.S., I was big on pride when it came to executing maneuvers with aplomb. J.S. never said it, but I’ll bet that his motivation was partly influenced by one other factor besides striving for perfection, and that would be to impress the girls. The girls were probably not impressed anyway, but for me, that goal played a role in sharpening my skills.
I recall one day when our instructor, Larry Galloway, gave one of the pupils in our car a stopwatch to time his run among the cones. Galloway had set up about 10 orange traffic cones in the parking lot to create a slalom course for the Impala. He started the test facing the line of cones, careened through them forwards, then ripped the Powerglide lever into “R,” and made a run back to the starting line in reverse.
The “master” felt superior as the next three students knocked down cones, went off course, and clocked sub-standard times. This was going to be right up my alley, I felt, as at the time I had aspirations of becoming a stunt driver.
With a chirp from the skinny bias-ply tires, I raced forward — no cone hits. I squealed to a stop, and reversed direction. With my right arm grabbing the seatback, I looked over my shoulder and screeched, left, right, left, back to the start. I was quite proud to have bettered Galloway’s time. I don’t know if the girls were impressed, but apparently the teacher was not. His only comment was, “That was not very smooth Mr. Love — smoothness is part of driving too.” I agree with that, but is a timed slalom run part of driving, Larry?
The point is, regardless of the motivation, that prideful driving is a good thing. Many of us took great pride in our results during the formative driving years, but have not continued that lust for perfection as we’ve aged. Now is a good time to renew that pride.
Liquid Ice Melter
Does anyone know of accidents caused by the slippery liquid ice melter? Last year, I witnessed a Honda slide into the back of a mini-van as a result of its inability to panic stop on the freshly poured concoction. I remembered that incident as I was stopped for a pedestrian on a multi-lane roadway recently. Just as the pedestrian was making his way past the front of my car, both he and I were alerted to trouble by the howl of skidding tires to my left. You guessed it, the driver to my left was attempting an emergency stop, but the adhesion to do so was absent on the liquid-coated roadway.
He never did stop, and it was his lack of driver alertness that nearly spelled disaster, but the melter was indeed a factor. Next, I found out just how slick the melting menace was, because as I took off at normal throttle, the rear tires of my vehicle spun — not a normal occurrence for this particular SUV. Beware — the coefficient of tire grip on fresh melter falls somewhere between water and ice.
Red Lights
Those who have trouble seeing red while driving may soon be seeing red when they check their mailboxes. The City Council and the Spokane Police Department have agreed to implement photo enforcement at certain Spokane intersections. In early August, I wrote of Knoxville, Tenn.’s success with such a program — I hope it works as well here. The goal is improved safety at intersections. In other jurisdictions, the plan has had a positive effect — less red light runners, hence fewer broadside collisions.
Please drive with precision and pride in 2007. Thanks for all of your contributions to this column in 2006 — please keep them coming.